Photoshoot one
Photoshoot two
This is a mood board compiled of Alessandra Sanguinetti’s works.
Alessandra Sanguinetti is an American photographer born in New York City in 1968. Moving to Argentina at two years old. This connects to her main work ‘The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their dreams’ where she documented two cousins Guillermina and Belinda across five years in Buenos Aires. Across the span of these five years, Sanguinetti documents these cousins throughout their childhood.
Her project ‘The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their dreams’ was created through an organic process, meeting Guillermina and Belinda’s grandmother through her family’s farm and in their surrounding area. Sanguinetti knew the pair of cousins since they were around 4 years old. Her initial intention was to focus the subject matter upon animals on the farm, however this shifted in 1988 when she decided to include the girls in her image making upon discovery of a story within them. Though they are not family, this relationship of knowing someone for many years creates a sense of comfort. This allows Sanguinetti to capture these portraits naturally among the farm, which is their natural born home. She did not predict the nature of the project, not expecting it to develop into a series through time, emphasising the natural and organic nature of her work. Through reflection of her project, Sanguinetti realised the importance of having a larger perspective and being able to view the whole story.
About
These images are of sentimental objects from around my house that hold significant importance to me. I will edit them by removing the background in photoshop in order to make them stand out against the background.
Images
Edits
Photoshoot 1/2:
I will do my first photoshoots at St Ouen’s beach as this is very near to my house and I cannot begin to take portraits just yet because my dad is currently away. I will try to capture the details, especially those seen by a surfer, as well as a wider view of the bay. I think that this will be important in order for me to set the scene for other images. I will do this in two (+) shoots to allow me to capture the effects of different weathers on the beach and the sea. These images will be most similar to Michael Marten‘s work, which will allow for a documentary style photographing of the subject.
Photoshoot 3/4:
Later, I will follow my dad on a few trips to the sea and photograph his movements on the way. I will also capture aspects such as water texture here and go for a documentary style series of portraits. This may be at St Ouen’s, but may also be in other places where my dad surfs, such as St Brelade, Greve de Lecq, and Plemont bay. Perhaps if my dad surfs/swims on Christmas Day this would be a good shoot as well. These will be more similar to the work of artists such as Thomas Lodin and also W. Eugene Smith.
Photoshoot 5:
I will photograph my dad in the house in a more environmental style, either in the garage alongside all the surfboards and wetsuits or in the main house, perhaps looking out of the windows at the surf in the distance as he often does. This will be an important part of the study because it will show how he lives his life at home. These images will be linked to the work of environmental portrait artist Arnold Newman.
BEFORE AND AFTER:
In these images I decided to change them into black and white. This is so they could have more of an older aesthetic of documentary photography. Black and white images are usually associated with older generations which further reinforces my nostalgic part of my project. Furthermore by the use of black and white images further fits with my images as most of the photographs I’ve taking is my family from the older generation. During the editing process I decided to keep all the editing settings the same, in order to keep my photobook clean and have a structured look. As well as keeping the editing settings the same, I decided to add a slight black vignette to create this ‘older’ look in my images.
EDITING SETTINGS:
EXPOSURE: -0.40
CONTRAST: -35
HIGHLIGHTS: +35
SHADOWS: -30
WHITES: -10
BLACKS: -15
VIGNETTE: -30
Photoshoot 1:
To start off my project, I would like to take images of the main bakehouse during non-working and working hours, showing the contrast between these two times of the day.
When? Non-working hours at the bakery are limited but between 1pm and 7pm there is usually nobody in the bakery, so in between these times will be best. As for working hours, I’m hoping to get a mixture of busy times and quiet times so I will need a chance to go in early in the morning (5-7 am) and later on in the morning (10 am-12 pm). I’m hoping to be able to show how the bakery works all through the day.
What? The main Vienna Bakery bakehouse, this is an area I have easy access to so this will be the first place I photograph.
Who? As much as possible, I will be aiming to take landscape-style images without anybody in the images, the main focus will be the building and the objects, not the people, within the building, however if some of the images have the workers in them, it won’t bother me.
Photoshoot 2:
As, this weekend, I will be working both days, I will take the chance to do a photoshoot of the staff in the shop, popular products in the shop and the shop.
When? Over a weekend. On Saturday, it’s a busier day so I won’t get much time to do a photoshoot but I will take the opportunity after 7:30 once the shop is set up to take images of different products coming into the shop at different times. On Sunday, not a lot of people will be expecting us to be open so it shouldn’t be too busy so this will be more of an opportunity to do a photoshoot of anything I don’t manage to capture on Saturday.
What? Objects-wise, I will be photographing different popular products that are made mainly in the shop but my main aim is to photograph products that people would recognise as Vienna Bakery products. I will also be photographing the actual bakery shop, whether that’s inside the shop or just the façade.
Who? Different staff members of the shop, I am hoping to photograph all the staff members in the shop, especially the more long-term and key workers i.e the bakers, the manager and staff members who may have been there for longer periods of time.
Photoshoot 3:
Even though it may not be an actual photoshoot, I am hoping to interview the director and maybe even the owner of the company, documenting the interview in a similar manner to Mitch Epstein in his book Family Business, picking stills from parts of the interview where we discuss specific topics about the business like why the creators chose the name or what makes the bakery different to others.
Interview questions:
What is the history of Vienna Bakery?
What made Bob Dodge decide to found Vienna?
How has the company kept going over all these years?
Are all the same traditional techniques used within the process of making products?
How did Covid-19 affect the company?
What is the difference, in your opinion, between Vienna and other bakeries in the island?
About
These are photographs of different locations that I have key memories of from my childhood. I plan to make these images edited to the emotion I feel towards the location, for example making some in black and white while others in colour.
Images
Edits
W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) was perhaps the most famous documentary photographer of all time. A member of the Magnum photography group from 1955 to 1958, Smith’s most famous work is arguably his 1948 Life magazine photo essay, Country Doctor. I will be looking at Smith’s work because he is a pioneer of the documentary photo essay and, as I want to tell my Dad’s story to the best of my abilities, Smith’s methods are of great interest to me.
He first began photographing at age 14, taking photos of airplanes at a local airfield, and became a photographer for two local newspapers within a year. After attending college (University of Notre Dame, for which he obtained a photography scholarship) for one year, he left for New York City at 18.
After a brief stint at Newsweek, where Smith was fired because he refused to move to large-format negatives from his beloved 35mm Contax, Smith was employed as a war correspondent for Life magazine in 1942. His experience photographing some of the most significant battles of the Pacific shaped his career, and his intentions to showcase the horrors of the conflict are clear in the shockingly detailed images. He felt that, through his photography, he would be able to galvanise those in power into not repeating their mistakes. He wrote “You can’t raise a nation to kill and murder without injury to the mind… It is the reason I am covering the war for I want my pictures to carry some message against the greed, the stupidity and the intolerances that cause these wars and the breaking of many bodies.” Unfortunately, he was seriously injured by mortar fire in 1945, and thus ensued two years of surgery, after which he continued at Life until 1955.
During his time with Life magazine, in 1948, Smith produced perhaps the most influential piece of photojournalism of the 20th century. This piece was called Country Doctor and followed the day-to-day life of the sole doctor for 2000 people in a small town in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The piece used and established the steps to creating a photoessay as Smith envisioned it, which are still used today by photojournalists the world over. These are:
By covering every single shot, the journalist is able to create a piece that fully explores the various aspects of a subject.
Task
PLANNING: Produce a blog post with a detailed plan of at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in response to analysis and interpretation of Artists References above. Make sure photo-shoots relates to the ideas on how you intend to develop your project as set out in your Statement of Intent. Follow these instructions: what, why, when, where?
Shoot One
Who – For my third shoot, I intend to photograph locations that bring me a sense of nostalgia and that I visited a lot growing up as well as some locations that I visit a lot currently.
What – When taking these photos, I plan to edit them according to how vivid they are in my memory. If I don’t remember them clearly, I may edit them to be less saturated or perhaps make them appear almost dream like.
Where – These photos will be taken at their locations, such as be the pink elephant park, St. Saviours school, the garden center etc.
Why – While photographing objects will be important for my project, I think the locations of my childhood are also something that should definitely be incorporated. It will also be interesting to see how much these areas have changed, I could also potentially try to replicate some photos from the past at these locations.
Shoot Two
Who – I plan to photograph objects from my childhood that create a sense of nostalgia or a meaningful to me such as toys, books, or sentimental items.
What – Much like the cards, I plan to use gel lighting when taking photographs of my objects too. I also think it would be a good idea to potentially blur some or add a sort of foggy effect to some of the objects that I don’t remember clearly.
Where – Once again, I would likely take these photographs either at school using the studio or at home, where I would set up a small area in my house to take them.
Why – These objects will help to display my memory of what stuck out to me growing up and help me to look back on the things I have forgotten as well at the memories attached to the objects. I feel as though this is important to me since I often don’t reflect on how much different things and people have helped me over the years.
Shoot Three
Who – Lastly, I plan to collect old photos of me and my family.
What – My plan for these photos is to create a collage of these images in black and white to symbolise how over different time periods, memories remain through photos and live on.
Where – I will take all these photos from my house and collect some older ones through my parents.
Why – I think its important to include older images to signify how important memory is to photography. However, since I plan on collaging the images I will make sure to use one page.
Shoot Four
Who – For this shoot, I want to photograph just a blank set up while focusing more on the lighting.
what – I plan to use some kind of blank table as well as a blank background. I will use different colours in my lighting to make the images more eye catching.
where – I will most likely create these images either in the studio at school or set up a makeshift studio at home.
why – I feel as though having blank areas in my photobook will help to depict the loss of a certain memory, however I think that having lighting will help to showcase the general emotion I remember feeling.
Shoot Five
Who – For my first shoot, I plan to photograph birthday cards ranging from when I was younger, to more recent ones.
What – For this shoot, I will use gel lighting in order to make the photos more colourful and eye catching. I plan to use a range of colours and tones to find which ones work best.
Where – In order to take these photos, I will either be using the studio in the school or take them from home.
Why – I am taking the photos of the cards in order to represent my age in my personal study as I will be exploring my memories. Regarding the gel lighting, since we cannot gain many emotions from objects on their own using colours in lighting is a way to display them.
From my review and reflection I want to explore the theme of teenage life and ‘girlhood’ further exploring the idea of feminism. By exploring this It will show how our teenage years change and we explore new things and experience new things. To develop this project I will bring my camera to any social settings with my friends for example party’s, late night drives, getting ready with my friends and gatherings. By further exploring the idea of girl pictures by Justine Kurland and creating pictures of my friends at party’s and in social settings, shows how we are all growing up and making different decisions.
This will link to the theme of nostalgia as these years of our lives are the ones which shape our future and we will always remember these years for the rest of our lives. So by capturing these moments, people may be able to relate to the images or when I’m older I can look back and the images.
My images will be a mixture of staged and capturing the moment. By having some staged images this means I can take pictures of things which I might miss out when taking them in the moment. I wish to present my series of images in a photo book in a way which tells a story which people can understand without any text or context and read a story through pictures.